The whole system is ridiculous honestly. Got fired from my warehouse job for missing too many days when my kid was sick and they STILL made me wait 6 weeks for adjudication. Like they're doing you a favor or something. But yeah you can definitely apply, just be prepared for them to take forever to decide.

Just to add - make sure you're honest about the reason for termination when you file. NYS Department of Labor will contact your employer anyway, so any discrepancies will hurt your case. The fact that you feel the write-ups were unfair doesn't necessarily matter legally, but if you can show the termination wasn't for willful misconduct, you should be approved.

same thing happened to me

Don't give up! I was disqualified initially because there was some confusion about my last day of work. My employer reported the wrong date to NYS Department of Labor and it made it look like I quit without notice. Once I provided my actual termination paperwork and explained the timeline, they reversed the disqualification. The whole thing took about 6 weeks but I got all my back pay. Make sure you keep filing your weekly claims even while the appeal is pending - that way if you win, you'll get benefits for those weeks too.

The whole system is ridiculous honestly. Why should federal employees have to jump through extra hoops just because our paychecks came from a different source? NYS Department of Labor should streamline this process instead of making us provide all these additional federal documents.

Just to add - if you worked for multiple employers including federal and state/private, make sure NYS Department of Labor knows about ALL your employment in the base period. The federal wages still count toward your total benefit calculation even though they're reimbursed differently.

Before you quit, try calling NYS Department of Labor directly to discuss your situation. I know their phone lines are always busy, but I actually used a service called Claimyr (claimyr.com) that helped me get through to an actual agent. They have this video demo at https://youtu.be/qyftW-mnTNI that shows how it works. The agent was able to explain exactly what documentation I'd need for a good cause quit before I made any decisions.

just want to add that even if you do get approved for quitting with good cause, there might be a longer waiting period before benefits start. and you'll still need to do job search activities and file weekly claims. the whole system is designed to make it as difficult as possible

employees don't pay into unemployment in NY unlike some other states where they deduct it from your paycheck. its all employer funded here

My brother works in HR and he says their company pays like $500 per employee per year in unemployment taxes but it varies based on how many claims they've had. Companies that lay people off a lot pay way more.